Notes / Commercial Description:
Certified Evil is the result of a 2008 collaboration project with Todd Ashman of Fifty Fifty Brewing in Truckee, California and Matt Van Wyk of Oakshire Brewing in Eugene, Oregon. Each brewer set out to create a dark Belgian strong ale with their own unique spin on the style. Since the first collaboration, six new breweries have been added to the project to invent a truly unique beer. This beer is properly named Certified Evil.
The new Certified Evil recipe is more complex and interesting than the brew from 2008. This new beer blends Certified Evil aged in Cabernet barrels for one year with a younger batch of oaked aged Certified Evil. The combination makes for a vibrant yet smooth and elegant taste. The recipe also includes a wide variety of complex sugars including turbinado sugar, molasses and honey. The result is an amazingly complex beer. Truly a must try to any craft beer lover.

Pitch black in color, dark khaki head. No light passes through; not even ruby at the edges. Great lacing throughout.

Tastes like a stout with a hearty amount of belgian yeast; almost like red wine and chocolate mixed together. Very thick and viscous. Raspberries are in the mix as well. Very unique; very worthy. Even better on draft.

Pours an oily, opaque black with a small mocha color head. Aroma is dark roasted malt, cold brew coffee, and dark fruits. Taste follows with dark roasted malt and dark chocolate upfront, followed by dark fruit and coffee in the middle, with just a touch of bitterness and booze in the finish. Mouthfeel is smooth, creamy, and medium thick, a definite oatmeal stout just by feel. Overall, this is a very good imperial oatmeal stout that takes qualities from imperial stout, imperial porter, and belgian quad/strong dark/stout styles, and blenda them all nicely into a beer that drinks quicker than its strength would belie.

Thoroughly enjoyed from the 12 oz bottle in a snifter via a friend from work---Thanks Randy!
This nice brew pours a rich blackish brown with a moderate head of light tan foam that settles to a thick ring, thin layer and light lacing. Nose of raisins, brown sugars, subtle wine notes, and sweet malts. Flavors exceed the nose with sweet notes of dark cocoa on the middle mixed with merlot notes and oak, sweet malts lay on the sides, and molasses and cherries round out the back with a subtle light tartness and lightly dry aftertaste etched with subtle char. Complex and unique with a lightly carbonated mouth feel and warming booze finish. Very nice. Outside of the standard Belgian strong, but highly drinkable and delicious.

I bought a four pack of twelve ounce bottles at the local Trader Joes after seeing it listed on Beer Advocate as a Belgian Strong Dark Ale. Upon visiting Lucky Bucket’s website I learned that the brewer classes it as an Imperial Porter (why not a stout?). Disappointedly I decided to open the one I had chilling in my refrigerator to make room for other beers. When I first started pouring this beer I noticed that the liquid was very dark and suspected that it wouldn’t produce much of a head. So I raised the height of the bottle above the snifter so as to increase velocity and induce some outgassing. To my surprise a healthy brown colored layer of foam was produced that nearly overfilled the glass. Additionally this head produced some very nice lacing, hats off to Lucky Bucket for the nice aesthetics. This beer’s flavor is robust with a nice roasty malt start and finishes with a trace of hoppy bitterness. If you like American ales brewed in the Britannic black beer tradition this one is worth looking into. Oh and Beer Advocate you really need to re-class this beer, I have no idea why you note it as a Belgian Strong Dark, there is nothing Belgian about it.

L: A black elixir fills the glass topped by a 2” tan froth that hugs the side of the glass.
S: Faint wine aromas with light roast, dark sugars, citrus, fruit.
T: This is a hop driven beer backed by rich dark sugar flavors, dark dried fruit, orange, citrus, and a little wineyness. Not a lot of coffee or chocolate.
F: Excellent creamy texture with fine soft carbonation and a medium to a little above on the body.
O: For as dark as it is, I am surprised there is nott more coffee and chocolate flavors. Easy to drink.